Susan attended the N.C. Press awards last night, which was why she was out of town. They changed the format, moving from the awards ceremony with hors d’ oeuvres at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill, to a sit-down dinner and the awards in a hotel in Durham.
When you walk into Susan’s office, one of the first things you’ll see is the three plaques on the wall behind her signifying her three consecutive Carl K Bell Awards. She went back this afternoon to the awards luncheon. This time, however, it was to honor her protege, Mike Kernels. Susan had pushed him to enter this year because he had done some strong work.
She plucked Mike out of the reporting ranks to be an editor. Here’s what she had to say about Mike when she announced he was going to be the assistant features editor:
I am delighted to announce that Mike Kernels is our new assistant features editor, effective immediately. Mike has won numerous awards for sports, investigative, news and feature writing in his career as a reporter, and I’m more than a little worried about holding onto that Carl Bell Award now that he’s becoming an editor. Please give him your congratulations.
How prophetic.
Like Susan, Mike initially was reluctant to move over to the dark side. But he’s grown to be an outstanding editor.
When he found out he won, he was very emotional. He invited Susan to go with him to the awards luncheon.
Good on ya, Mike. Congrats.
5 Comments
Kernels is awesome, though I miss his writing. And of course Susan is wonderful as well. Good work, both of them.
And you’re not a bad dude yourself.
The paper is lucky to have them both.
Just wait.. this is only the beginning of your mentoring joy. When your girls become adults and you see the realize their dreams.. well its a whole new level!! xoxox
Anna
When I was editing in features and Mike was a reporter, the thing that struck me most about him was his stunning ratio of talent to ego. I remember thinking, “This guy is going to be a lot of writers’ favorite editor someday.”